Golden Week nuggets for silver screen

By Chen Nan (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-09-26 08:04

Following the success of his 2003 adventure film Warriors of Heaven and Earth, mainland director He Ping returns with his historical drama Wheat.

In this film, the director focuses less on the exploits of epic heroes and villains, and more on ordinary people caught in the middle. Set during China's Warring States Period (475-221 BC), a time when fighting was the only way to survive, Wheat tells the stories of the individuals - deserters, widows and peasants - who couldn't escape the violence.

The director spent six years preparing to film the ancient battle epic, which features ordinary soldiers, rather than warlords and emperors, as protagonists.

A new film features famous musicians addressing their views about pirated music in an ironic and humorous way.

Copy Cat tells the story of a group of down-and-out musicians whose lives are impacted by the proliferation of pirated CDs.

The film is the debut work of director Gao Yixin and is also the first time many of the musicians, such as Sun Nan and rock star Xie Tianxiao, have acted for a film. They share their experiences of life as famous musicians in the film.

"I am living in a real world and in an entertaining world, which is very China," the director says.

"I saw those singers who work hard but are paid poorly. The market is bad, and there's no way to make money because of piracy."

Gao says nearly all of the stars haven't asked to get paid for appearing in the film but rather, did it just for fun. Because the stars' schedules were so packed, all filming took place day-and-night in less than three weeks.

Other films to hit theaters during the National Day holiday include:

Dirt Rich in Shanghai

Directed by Taiwan dynamo Peter Lee, this romantic comedy is about a nouveau rich man determined to transform his down-to-earth image as a gentleman of taste to pursue a famous actress. Mainland actor Sun Honglei plays the businessman and Hong Kong actress Kelly Lin plays a publicity executive who helps Sun overhaul his persona. But when Sun finally wins the actress' affections, he realizes he actually instead wants the woman who helped him do so. Opens on Sept 28.

The Message

Before its Sept 30 release, the spy film received a great deal of media attention because of the star-studded cast and suspenseful storylines. Set in Japanese-occupied China in 1942, the film tells of a Japanese spy chief trying to identify a Chinese agent among a group of suspects. According to media reports, the two lead actresses - Zhou Xun and Li Bingbing - suffered emotional breakdowns during filming. The film also stars Zhang Hanyu and Huang Xiaoming.